Two-dimensional images, such as photographs, typically do not provide a good sense of depth or distance. For example, landscape photographs may show features many miles in the distance. However, the contrast between objects near to the camera and objects in the distance does not provide a sense of three-dimensional depth. Thus, such images tend to look flat. Talented photographers may be better able to capture a sensation of depth within a photograph by carefully selecting exposure times, lighting, and other factors. However, most photographers are less skilled, and are less able to capture the depth of a scene. In either case, photographs may benefit from three-dimensional enhancement.
While there are many ways to enhance an image that are known, such as sharpening and adjusting color or contrast values uniformly across an image, methods of enhancing two-dimensional images to provide an increased three-dimensional appearance do not analyze user-selected pixels or regions or adjust pixel attributes in a graduated manner to provide a two-dimensional image having an enhanced three-dimensional appearance.